


Planning Is The Key

by FollowTheFirefly



Category: Persona 4
Genre: F/M, First Dates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-10
Updated: 2016-05-21
Packaged: 2018-06-07 12:42:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6805006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FollowTheFirefly/pseuds/FollowTheFirefly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Kanji finally summons the courage to ask Naoto out on a date, but he doesn't exactly think of what comes after that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I got the idea for this while playing PQ after the part where Yukari is talking to Kanji about his obvious love for Naoto. I had it pictured a bit differently in my head, but I think I like the way it turned out much better.

Kanji really didn’t need anyone telling him that he needed to think before he spoke. He’d known that for most of his life. He was painfully aware of it now that his friends were teasing him as they normally did. It was all in good fun, of course, but sometimes it managed to get on Kanji’s nerves.

And apparently today was going to be one of those days.

“Still think you and Chie are a bit weird,” Yu said as he, Yosuke and Kanji sat in the food court of Junes after school one day.

“What’s so weird about it?” Yosuke sipped on his melon soda, his eyes on his friend.

“I think he means that none of us expected the two of you to hook up,” Kanji was only slightly paying attention to the conversation. He was more focused on the plush toy in his hands that he was mending with a needle and thread.

“But at least he finally shut up about it,” Yu shrugged, spinning an empty grapefruit soda bottle around in a circle on the table. “Seriously, I would have asked her out for you if you kept complaining.”

“I wasn’t that bad,” Yosuke rolled his eyes before adding, “At least I’m not like Kanji with Naoto.”

“Say what now?” Kanji narrowed his eyes.

“You know what he means,” Yu responded. “It’s pretty obvious, you know.”

“N-no I’m not,” Kanji’s face grew red, a surefire way to tell how frustrated he was.

“Why don’t you just ask her?” Yosuke pointed out, stabbing some of his ramen with a chopstick.

“I can’t just do that,” Kanji retorted quickly. “And it’s not like that, anyway.”

“Sure it isn’t,” Yu glanced over at Yosuke.

“Where’s Naoto, anyway?” Yosuke frowned, noticing the absence of their detective friend. “I thought she was coming.”

“She was helping Chie and Rise with something back at school, so she was coming by with them later,” Kanji explained, his fingers gliding over the plush elephant he was working on. “But speaking of missing people, is Teddie coming?”

“Nah, he’s working,” Yosuke was a little too gleeful about this.

“What did he do this time?” Yu already knew that their friend had likely done something to warrant this outcome.

“We caught him napping in the mattress department,” Yosuke grinned, adjusting the headphones around his neck. “Now he has to pull double shifts for a month.”

“Seems a bit harsh,” Kanji observed.

“For Ted? No,” Yosuke shook his head. “I’d say that his punishment should be a lot harsher.”

“You’re just mad about the last time,” Yu pointed out, twisting the top off of another bottle of soda.

“Well, wouldn’t you be?” Yosuke challenged, sitting up a bit straighter. “If he hadn’t completely destroyed my desk and half of my closet, it would be a different story.”

“Geez, what the hell did he do?” Kanji had to admit that he was curious. Enough to make him look up from the plushie, at any rate.

“Don’t want to know,” Yosuku shook his head.

“No really, you don’t want to know.”

Chie was shaking her head in annoyance as she approached the table with Rise, both of them looking rather worn out. If the boys hadn’t known better, they’d have guessed that the girls had just completed a triathlon. Chie had taken off her favourite green sweatshirt and had stuffed it inside her bag and Rise had discarded her jacket as well and her hair was a little bit frizzy, but this could easily be blamed on the humidity from the rain. Both girls looked like they hadn’t slept in a week, which was odd considering that they both looked perfectly fine when the group parted at school.

“What took you so long?” Yu asked, scooting over on the bench so Rise could sit down next to him.

“Rise and Naoto and I got stuck helping in the nurse’s office,” Chie dropped her bag on the ground and sat down between Yosuke and Kanji. “Nothing happened, but there’s that horrible aura in there, you know?”

“Your plushie is looking great, Kanji,” Rise was watching Kanji work on the little elephant toy. 

“Thanks,” Kanji nodded. “Ma said she wanted to have some in the shop. I finished the one last night, but I just wanted to make another one.”

“You really should sell them,” Chie told him, accepting the melon soda that Yu handed her from across the table. 

“Nah,” Kanji shrugged before changing the subject. “But where’s Naoto? I thought she would be with you guys?”

“She got a call from her grandfather, so she’s taking it outside,” Chie twisted the cap off of her soda.

“Still haven’t asked her out yet?” Rise asked in an almost bored voice. “Geez, Kanji, what are you waiting for?”

“Oh, now you want to start?” Even though the teasing had been pretty mild that day, Kanji was still tired of it.

“We already covered that,” Yosuke quickly explained to a rather confused Rise.

“Ah, Rise apparently realized that this was a line she really shouldn’t cross.

“Why does everyone keep askin’ about that?” Kanji demanded, growing more frustrated by the second.

“Kanji, you do realize that we’re just teasing, right?” Yu felt that he had to make sure. Sometimes it could be hard to tell with Kanji.

“No shit, I know that,” Kanji had pulled out his bag and was stuffing the plush elephant and sewing supplies inside. “But it’s still annoying as hell.”

Having said his piece, Kanji got up from the table and stomped away from the group, walking in the direction of the elevators. He’d expected to one of the empty ones and was quite surprised to find Naoto on the other side of the doors.

“Leaving so soon?” Naoto asked as she stepped out into the hallway.

“Yeah,” Kanji felt his face growing hot again. “I’ve got some work to do at home.”

“I see,” Naoto said, turning and walking in the direction of the food court.

“H-hey, Naoto!” Kanji called after her. “Hang on a minute!”

She stopped and turned around to face Kanji, who was sprinting towards her.

“Did you forget something?” Naoto asked.

“No, I just wanted to ask you something,” Kanji’s mouth was moving faster than he could think.

“And that is?” Naoto adjusted the strap of the bag hanging on her shoulder.

“Would you go out with me?” Kanji regretted asking her as soon as the words left his mouth.

“Yeah, where did you need to go?” Apparently Naoto was more oblivious than he had thought.

“No, I mean like a date,” There was no point in trying to cover it up now.

“Excuse me?” Naoto really wasn’t sure she could say much more than this.

“Saying no would be a bit nicer than that,” Kanji scowled, feeling quite annoyed at himself for doing such a foolish thing in the first place.

“No, I mean…” Naoto was clearly struggling for words, which made Kanji even more anxious. “But why? I don’t understand.”

“Why I’m asking you out?” Kanji took her arm and led her away from the centre of the hallway and over to the corner, where they would hopefully have a better chance of some privacy.

“Yes,” Naoto nodded.

“I mean, you’re really cute and smart and everything,” he really hated having to tell her all this, especially since it seemed so obvious to him that she should know these qualities about herself.

“I really can’t say that I agree,” Naoto’s cheeks were turning a light shade of pink. “But wouldn’t you rather go on a date with Rise-chan?”

“With Rise?” Now it was Kanji’s turn to be confused.

“Yes,” Naoto stated, fiddling with the buttons on her jacket. “She’s the idol, after all, and I always thought that she was more of your type.” 

“Well, Rise’s a friend, but I just don’t feel that way about her,” Kanji wished that she’d just give him a damn answer already.

“I see,” Naoto said again, leaning her shoulder against the wall and crossing her arms in front of her chest.

“Look, if you want to say no, I get it,” Kanji had turned around and was about to walk away when Naoto grabbed the back of his jacket, holding him in place.

“But I’m not saying no,” Naoto said quietly, as if she was embarrassed to say it.

“Wait, seriously?” he wanted to make sure that he was hearing her properly and not just imagining things. “You’re saying yes?”

“Yes,” Naoto pulled the brim of her hat over her face in an attempt to hide the fact that she was blushing furiously.

“Huh,” was all Kanji could manage to say. “How about that?”

“”Did you have something in mind?” Naoto was proud that her voice didn’t betray her nervousness. 

“Actually, I didn’t plan any of this,” Kanji rubbed the back of his neck. “And I really didn’t expect you to say yes, either.”

“Why not?” Naoto asked again.

“Not important,” Kanji shook his head. “But everyone’s waiting for you, so you should get going.”

“If you say so,” Naoto wasn’t quite sure why Kanji wasn’t joining them, but she got the feeling that this was something she shouldn’t ask about. 

“I’ll text you later?” Kanji’s response sounded more like a question than he intended for it to be.

“Sure,” Naoto nodded in response as she watched him walk back in the direction of the elevators, moving between the crowd.

He felt an odd sense of relief as he traversed through town and made his way back to the shop. For most of the way home, he was chastising himself for acting so rashly, though in the back of his mind, he was trying to figure out what in the world he was going to do for a date.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've actually had this written up for about two weeks, but haven't had a chance to type it yet. Oh well. I'm not that fond of the ending, but I like how this turned out as a whole.

They spent most of the night texting each other trying to figure out when they were going on their impromptu date and what exactly they were going to do. It didn’t help that both of them were pretty indecisive, meaning that they ended up taking almost twice as long to make a decision.

Though he was quite pleased with the outcome, albeit a little surprised, Kanji was quite angry with himself for acting as rashly as he had. His track record for such outbursts was quite spectacular and even though he had been thinking Naoto out at some point, he certainly wanted to do something different. He’d expected on doing some more planning beforehand and attempt to seem a bit less nervous than he was.

In all honesty, he probably would have been as nervous even if he’d planned ahead, so Kanji didn’t dwell too much on that.

After quite a lot of debate, they decided that since the next day was a Saturday and school would be letting out early that they would try to spend some time together then. Naoto had suggested going to a nearby tea shop, which really wasn’t Kanji’s sort of thing, but he was willing to try it if it meant spending some time with her. 

When he actually thought about it, Kanji couldn’t quite remember the last time he actually had tea. The last time he really recalled having some was while he father was still alive and he wasn’t entirely certain that he’d had some since then.

The next morning, he got ready much faster than usual, something that surprised her mother. She was used to her son leaving without even having breakfast, but this time he stuck around enough to devour a piece of toast before heading out to the hall to put his shoes on.

“Ma, I’ll be late home today,” he called to his mother as he sat down on the floor, pulling his sneakers towards him. 

“Out on a date with some girl, hmm?” Mrs. Tatsumi emerged from the kitchen, holding a steaming mug of tea in her hand. “It’s about time you got a nice girlfriend, you know.”

“Geez, will ya lay off that?” Kanji sighed. “And for the record, I am going on a date after school.”

“Are you really?” Mrs. Tatsumi had to admit that she was more than a little taken aback by her son’s words. “A girl your own age?”

“Yes, Ma,” Kanji instantly regretted telling her anything. “Naoto from my year.”

“Oh, that detective you’re always going on about?” She knew that this was who he was talking about. When they first met, she heard him talk about nothing else for two weeks straight. “I should have known. And where are you taking her?”

“Not here?” Kanji’s response sounded a bit harsher than he wanted. 

“How rude,” Mrs. Tatsumi glared at Kanji.

“Look, I’m just taking her to one of the tea shops in the shopping district,” Kanji’s fingers fumbled with the lances of his shoes. “Point is I’ll be late, so don’t wait up for me, ‘kay?”

“Yes, yes, I know,” Kanji’s mother shooed him out of the hall as soon as he stood up. “Now hurry up and get to class. I don’t want to get another call from that school again.”

-

Kanji really had expected Rise to know about his plans with Naoto. She had a way of finding out just about anything that she wanted to. He wasn’t expecting the second years to bombard him with questions as they ate their lunch on the roof later in the day.

“Dude, is this because of what happened yesterday?” Yosuke asked as he munched on some onigiri. “Because we know we probably shouldn’t have nagged you about it.”

“No, it ain’t about that,” Kanji shook his head. “I just sorta said it before I knew what I was saying.”

“Like that’s a surprise,” Chie reached for Yosuke’s onigiri.

“Wait, what did you say?” Yukiko had only been half-listening to the conversation and had just decided to start paying attention to it again.

“Like I’m going to tell you guys any of what happened,” Kanji said before stabbing some of his twice-cooked pork with a chopstick. 

“Where’s Naoto, anyway?” Yu looked around the roof for their friend.

“She always spends lunch studying in the library,” Rise explained to the group, biting the tail off of a cheese-flavoured taiyaki. 

“She never eats any lunch?” Chie was already halfway finished with her bowl of yakisoba. “No wonder why she eats dinner right after school.”

“Not everyone thinks about food all the time like you do,” Yukiko told her.

“That’s just the meat,” Chie corrected her as the school bell sounded from the loudspeakers. “Aww man, I don’t want to go back to class.”

“Well, good luck, man,” Yosuke clapped Kanji on the back as the group stood up and slowly made their way back to their classrooms.

“Thanks?” Kanji wasn’t completely sure what Yosuke was wishing him luck with.

The rest of the day seemed to drag on, even though they didn’t have a lot of the school day left. Kanji spent most of it attempting to knit in secret under his desk, which didn’t work out well considering that his teacher confiscated his needles. To add further insult to injury, he was forced to stand out in the hallway by the classroom door for the remainder of the day.

“Well done, Kanji-kun,” Rise found him a little while later, handing him his bag and knitting supplies. “Anything happen out here today?”

“Oh shut up,” She asked him this question every time he was sent out into the hall and it never failed to irritate him.

“Should we be expecting you or Naoto-kun at Junes later?” Rise asked as Kanji took his bag from her.

“Dunno,” Kanji shrugged. “We never exactly planned that far ahead.”

“Well, have fun,” Rise said with a mysterious smile as she walked down the hallway and over to the shoe lockers.

After checking to make sure that his knitting was undamaged, Kanji followed after Rise and made his way to the school gates. Just as they’d planned, Naoto was already waiting for him outside, leaning against the pillars and staring up at the sky.

“Haven’t been waiting long, have you?” Kanji asked a few minutes later when he managed to catch up to her.

“No, I just got her a few minutes ago,” Naoto shook her head, straightening up.

“Still wanted to do the tea thing?” Kanji asked as they made their way down the street. 

“Actually, I was thinking of skipping that, if you don’t mind,” Naoto said sheepishly, looking a little embarrassed. 

“Yeah, that’s okay,” Kanji had to step around a group of third years that decided to congregate in the middle of the street. “But why the change? I thought you were so eager to go?”

“Well, I may have had too much caffeinated tea while I was working on some reports last night, so I couldn’t sleep,” Naoto confessed, her cheeks turning a bit pink. “So I thought I’d have some herbal tea to help me sleep, so I made six cups of tea to see if that would help.”

“Six cups?” Kanji stared at her incredulously. “I guess you’re tired of tea then, huh?”

“Quite, yes,” Naoto nodded as she and Kanji stepped out to the main street. 

“Well, we can always try going to Okina to watch a movie,” Kanji suggested, digging his hands into his pockets. “Or is that too forward for a first date?”

“No, not at all,” Naoto shook her head, though she had a slight smile on her face. “But I’m afraid that I have no idea what’s playing right now.”

“Me neither,” Kanji shrugged. “But I’m not too picky about movies.”

-

“Well, that definitely wasn’t what I expected.”

They were walking out of the theatre several hours later. Apparently they’d decided to go during a week of marathons. The day’s theme appeared to be about sports, something neither Kanji nor Naoto were interested in. Consequently, both of them had fallen asleep, though Naoto slept far longer than Kanji had.

“Yeah, but at least we got a good nap out of it,” Kanji yawned off the last of his sleep. “You don’t sleep much, anyway.”

“And all that tea last night didn’t help,” Naoto shook her head. “Chie would have liked those, though.”

“Especially the last one with the ninja rugby players,” Kanji added. “What was that even about, anyway?”

“I was about to ask you the same thing,” Naoto said as they hurried across a busy intersection. “I fell asleep around the time that it started.”

“Okay, I’m glad I’m not the only one, then,” Kanji grinned. 

Naoto was quiet for a few minutes before she said, “This was quite an enjoyable experience.”

“It would have been better if I had actually planned something,” Kanji scratched the back of his head.

“Sometimes planning ahead isn’t always the best thing, Kanji-kun,” Naoto said, moving around him to avoid hiding a light post.

“But still, I could have planned something better than a sports movie marathon that we both fell asleep while watching,” Kanji said before he realized something. “Oh hey, isn’t it almost dinner? I dunno about you, but that popcorn didn’t do much for me.”

“Yes, I’m a bit hungry,” Naoto agreed. “Why don’t we head back to Inaba and stop at Aiya?”

“Works for me,” Kanji nodded in agreement as they made their way back to the train station. “That way I can pick up something for Ma.”

“She isn’t expecting you home tonight?” Naoto frowned, stepping onto the escalator leading into the station.

“Nah, I told her I’d be out with you for a while,” Kanji shook his head. “She somehow figured out that we were going out tonight.”

“That isn’t a problem, is it?” Naoto asked as they reached the line for the ticket kiosk. 

“She seemed pretty elated about the whole thing,” Kanji told her. A minute or so passed in silence before he said, “I’m sure that she’d love to meet you if this ever happens again.”

“If?” Naoto was more than a little confused.

After moving up to the kiosk, Kanji said, “Well, I wasn’t sure that you’d actually want to do this again, ya know?”

“I wouldn’t object to it,” Naoto slid over to the next kiosk, tapping a few buttons and obtaining her ticket.

“Is that your way of saying that you want to go out again sometime?” Kanji was starting to learn how Naoto chose her words specifically to each situation she was in.

“Yes,” Naoto said with a smile as she pocketed her train ticket. “Just so long as we don’t end up like Chie and Yosuke.”

“Oh man, if that ever happens, I’m calling this whole thing off,” Kanji groaned, stepping onto the platform to wait for their train. “Why do they even do half of that stuff?”

“Probably because they see other kids doing it, so they feel the need to do the same,” Naoto assumed. 

“I don’t see myself doing anything like that,” Kanji leaned against one of the support pillars behind him. “Too gross.”

“You’re too shy to do something like that, anyway,” Naoto pointed out.

“Yeah, you’ve got a point,” Kanji said. “And we both know that PDA isn’t really your thing, so I guess we’re safe.”

“Though I do have a sneaking suspicion that our friends will ask about how it went tonight,” Naoto said, leaning forward a bit to check the tunnel for a sign of the train. “Rise in particular will be interested, I think.”

“Well, what do you think we should tell them?” Kanji held onto the back of Naoto’s jacket, taking care that she didn’t fall forward.

“I think we should let them form their own opinion,” Naoto leaned back and turned to face Kanji. “After all, their thoughts on the matter don’t make a difference in what happens, right?”

“That’s pretty blunt for you,” Kanji noted as the train came barreling into the station, slowing down to a stop. “But I like it.”

“Then it’s decided,” Naoto stood up, stretching her arms in front of her chest. 

“So what are you going to get at Aiya?” Kanji stood as well and followed her to the train. “I was thinking of some udon.”

They continued like that for some time. He didn’t know why he had been so worried about doing this before. It felt a lot easier than he had expected it to be. Maybe Naoto was right and planning ahead wasn’t always the best thing.


End file.
